


True love's kiss

by Khalehla



Series: Requests [13]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Curse-Breaking, Different definitions of love, Jealousy, M/M, Magical Realism, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, True Love's Kiss, Unrequited Love, implied Draxler/Kimpembe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-14 01:23:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13583034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khalehla/pseuds/Khalehla
Summary: Julian Draxler accidentally gets hit with a curse and can only awaken withTrue Love's Kiss- whatever that means.A study on the definition of "love".





	True love's kiss

**Author's Note:**

> For anon, who requested a TrappLer fic on tumblr.

As soon as Kevin hears about what happened, he rushes to the rooms set aside for the medical team, and tries to push his way through the throng of players already gathered in the corridor.

“Any news?” he asks Manuel as their captain periodically tries to stick his head into the door of the treatment room.

“Nope. They won’t let anyone not close to Jule in and, well, only Leon was standing close enough to have heard anything.”

Kevin sticks his head around the corner as well, and sees Benedikt, Mats and Leon in the room with the Dr. Wohlfahrt and the other members of the medical team; they all seem to be debating something and Leon in particular looks uncomfortable. “What about Mats? Why’s he there?”

“Because he’s a busy body and actually has a real soft spot for Jule,” Manuel shrugs. “Some left over protectiveness from Brazil, I guess.”

“That makes sense,” Kevin agrees reluctantly, wondering if there was any chance he could squeeze in and find out what happened. Before he can try anything though, Benedikt runs a frustrated hand over his short hair and turns to face the door, waving his hand in the universal signal for “come here” when he spots Kevin and Manuel.

Kevin looks at Manuel, not sure which of them Benedikt is calling, then points at himself in question. Benedikt nods, so Kevin walks towards them, spotting Julian on one of the treatment beds, face relaxed and almost peaceful. Kevin’s heart tugs a bit.

“What happened?” Kevin asks quietly, eyes never leaving his club teammate’s face.

“He collapsed,” one of the doctors says shortly, “and won’t wake up no matter what we try.”

Kevin’s breath catches and he turns to the head doctor in alarm. “Shouldn’t you take him to the hospital, then?” He wasn’t normally the type of player to contradict or question a medical expert - especially not one as famed and respected as Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt - but even Kevin knew that collapses warranted hospital visits.

Dr. Wohlfahrt presses his lips together. “Normally we would, but this is a bit of an unusual case, and we don’t know whether a _hospital_ is the right place to treat him.”

Kevin blinks in confusion. “Er, why not?”

“Because he was cursed,” Mats explains in exasperation, “and until we find out the counter-curse or cure, there’s no point in moving him around.”

Kevin blinks even more. “He was _what_ now?”

“I don’t know if ‘cursed’ is the right term for it,” one of the doctors starts to say, but is cut off when Mats snorts loudly.

“A little girl waved her wand at him and said that he would sleep until he was woken with “true love’s kiss”, then he  _fell asleep_ \- I’m pretty sure that’s the _exact_ definition of being cursed.”

The doctors look disturbed enough to ignore Mats’ sass which normally none of them would ever get away with, and this worries Kevin even more.

“Okay someone’s going to have to tell me what the hell is going on and what I can do to help, because I’m really confused right now.”

“I think he actually did get cursed,” Leon sighs. “The little girl actually had her wand out and he was surrounded by light before he collapsed.”

“Didn’t anyone stop her?” Kevin demands in disbelief. “What were her parents doing this whole time? Why was she even allowed a wand in the stadium? They check bags for a reason!”

“And that is a question for the security to figure out,” Dr. Wohlfahrt also sighs. “But for now we have to figure out what to do for young Draxler.”

Kevin nods. “What do you need from me?”

“You have all the phone numbers of your teammates at PSG, right?” Benedikt asks.

“Sure. But what do you need them for?”

“We may need you to get in contact with his particular friend - the one he always talks about; what’s his name again? Sounds like Mbappe but isn’t - just in case we really do need a kiss to wake Jule up.”

Kevin can’t even lie to himself, he’s completely blindsided by Benedikt’s request. It’s something that he’s been working on since Julian’s move to PSG: not being overwhelmed by his growing feelings for Julian which started last season, and more recently, not becoming bitter about Julian’s rather public bromance with Presnel. Kevin doesn’t want to believe that he’s the jealous type, but the fact that Julian had latched on to the young centre-back this season and seemed to have forgotten all about Kevin (an exaggeration, Kevin will admit when he’s being level-headed) had made all the ugly feelings Kevin never wanted to have come out. It’s his own fault, Kevin knows, for not taking things further towards the end of last season when it almost seemed like Julian was giving off “more than friends” vibes, but seeing Julian so unabashedly open about how much he _adored_ Presnel really, really hurt. And now Benedikt was asking him to find out whether or not everyone’s suspicions that Julian and Presnel had romantic feelings for each other was true.

Kevin takes a moment to stamp down viciously on the emotions threatening to spill out, because he’s still mature enough to understand that this was about helping cure Julian, and because Kevin cared - so fucking much - he would do anything he could to help break the curse, even if it meant breaking his own heart. 

“You mean Kimpembe?” he manages to choke out. “Presnel?”

“That’s the one,” Benedikt nods, then tips his head to the side. “Do you think it will work?”

Kevin can almost feel his heart shrivel up and die. “What will work?” he asks, because he apparently liked pain.

“We’re not really sure what’s going on with Jule and your teammate,” Leon says, scratching at the back of his head. “I mean Jule always talks about him, but sometimes I can’t tell if it’s ‘coz he’s lovestruck or he just doesn’t have that many friends in the club aside from you. So who knows if they like each other, ya know?”

“They seem like it,” Kevin admits around the lump in his throat. “If there’s something going on I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“So this Presnel is our best bet?” one of the doctors asks. “Because it’s going to take forever to contact the French national team then explain what’s going on so we can borrow their player. Do we have the time?”

“We’re going to have to make time considering we don’t have any other options and we have to tell his parents _something_ ,” Dr. Wohlfahrt points out. “We don’t have much to go on except for a fairy tale, but even that isn't helpful because we don’t know if the child was repeating an existing spell or if she was making it up as she went along. Spells dealing with emotions are volatile enough as it is, and who knows what her intentions were?”

“She was just a kid,” Leon reminds them, “so I’m pretty sure she didn’t have any bad intentions. For all we know she’d just finished watching a Disney movie and it stuck in her head. I mean, she kept telling Jule he was “pretty like a princess”, so that’s gotta mean something, right?”

“The question is, _which_ Disney movie?”

It had suddenly occurred to Kevin with the mention of Disney films that not all of those fairytale kisses could possible have been reciprocated. Snow White, after all, was revived by a prince she hadn’t even met before, so there was no way she could have been in love with him even if he fell in love with her at first sight. It’s this thought that makes Kevin blurt out, “Does it have to be requited?”, because if the answer was 'no', then maybe Kevin himself could help break the curse, even if it meant revealing his deepest secret to everyone in the room.

The confused looks he gets make him want to squirm and take it back but Kevin stills, trying to be brave and selfless even when all he really wants to do is run away.

“Sorry?” Dr. Wohlfahrt asks, a crease between his eyebrows.

Kevin swallows again. “True love. Does it have to be requited? Will it work if, well, if Jule doesn’t feel the same way?”

“Why?” the head doctor asks slowly, then his eyes widen and Kevin can tell the exact moment Dr. Wolfahrt gets it.

Still, Kevin gathers what little bravery he has left, and manages to quite calmly say, “Because if Jule doesn’t have to love them back, we won’t need to wait for Presnel to come to try and wake him up.”

There’s a tense silence and intake of breath from Mats when everyone else realises what Kevin is saying, but Kevin keeps his eyes on the doctor, who’s looking at him much too seriously.

“I’m not sure,” Dr. Wolfahrt admits. “I’ve not read anything from the fairy tales that specifically suggest it has to be requited. That could possibly be a modern invention.” Kevin nods - it’s his own conclusion too - as the head doctor turns to the other members of his medical team; they all shrug at him. “In fact,” Dr. Wolfahrt adds after a moment, “I’m not even sure if it has be romantic love either, which I’m assuming is what you mean - is that correct?”

Kevin nods while ignoring the need to run off again. Thankfully, no-one makes a big deal about Kevin’s unexpected confession, although Dr. Wolfahrt’s eyebrows crease some more.

“You see, the young girl mentioned “true love’s kiss”, but did she specifically mention anything about romance or prince charmings or anything that would limit the definition of “true love”?”

Leon frowns, trying to think very hard on the exact moment. “I can’t remember precisely, but I’m pretty sure all she said is “true love’s kiss”.”

“Does that mean that any type of kiss will do?” Mats asks. “It doesn’t have to be romantic?”

“Who knows?” Dr. Wolfahrt shrugs. “In the Greek there are multiple forms of love - agápe, éros, philía, and storgē - and they’re all considered “true” love based on having genuine affection for someone whether it’s your partner or even your sports team; it just depends on the context.”

“So anyone who genuinely loves him can kiss him and he’d wake up?” Leon presses. “Even his mom?”

“Theoretically, yes. If the spell caster didn’t specifically say what type of love, then you’d think so. But, since we don’t know what the little girl’s spell source is, we can’t say for sure.”

“Only one way to find out,” Benedikt says before moving closer to Julian’s bed. The former Schalke captain brushes his hand across Julian’s forehead, then bends down to kiss Julian on the forehead. Benedikt straightens up, frowns, then bends down to kiss Julian again, this time on the lips. “Wake up, love,” he says softly.

They wait. Nothing happens, and Kevin is in the process of working himself up to take his turn (because maybe it _did_ have to be romantic love, after all), when Julian makes a hitching noise, slowly rolls over to his side, then promptly starts snoring softly.

Benedikt lets out a startled laugh, everyone looks at each other in confusion, then at Dr. Wolfahrt.

“Did it work?” one of the other doctors asks. “Isn’t he supposed to wake up?”

Dr. Wolfahrt shrugs, then gently shakes Julian. “Draxler. Julian, time to wake up.”

Julian snorts, curls up into a foetal position and mumbles, “Five more minutes.”

This time, Benedikt laughs in relief. “Get up, Jule. We have a team meeting.”

Julian groans, then slowly rolls onto his back, wiping at his eyes before opening them. When he finally notices that he’s in a room full of medics and other teammates, Julian freezes, looking around warily. “Ah, Bene? What’s going on? Where am I and why are you all looking at me like that?”

Instead of answering, Benedikt pulls Julian into a sitting position and hugs him tight, ignoring Julian’s “wah?” 

“You scared us,” Benedikt tells Julian, then steps to the side to let Mats, Leon and Kevin - heart hammering and almost overwhelmed with relief that Julian actually woke up - have their turn. “Never do that again.”

“Okay?” Julian agrees slowly. “But you’ll have to tell me what I did so I can, ya know, _not_ do it again.”

This is the signal for the medics to take over, and Kevin is relieved when they all get ushered out of the room. His relief is only short-lived though, because Benedikt stops him just as he’s about to run away.

“That was a very brave thing to offer to do,” the former Schalke captain says seriously. Mats and Leon are looking at him gravely, with varying amounts of sympathy, and it makes Kevin want to hide even more.

“Don’t tell Jule,” he pleads. “He doesn’t need to know and I didn’t have to do anything, so just don’t tell him, okay?”

Mats makes a tsk-ing sound and Leon frowns, looking like he wants to object, but Benedikt overrules the other two by saying, “Of course not; not if you don’t want us to.”

Kevin’s shoulders bow at Benedikt’s words, then he quickly rushes off to find somewhere quiet to calm his still too-frantic heart.

**Author's Note:**

> \--  
> I have a [tumblr account ](https://khalehla.tumblr.com) for my writings and random ficlets. If you have a question about this or any of my other stories, come say hi :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I write **fiction** about real people. As far as I know, none of these events ever happened; any resemblance to any actual events are purely coincidental.


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